How does the good news of Jesus shape our understanding of who we are? That is the subject of Judy Cha’s very helpful book.

Cha, with her background in counselling, attempts to form a bridge between theology and psychology. And she does an excellent job at it.

One of Cha’s main ideas is the suggestion that we have both a head and a heart knowledge of God. These she calls our God concept and our God image. Our God concept is our head knowledge – our theology and doctrine, shaped by the Bible. Our God image is how we feel about God, shaped mainly by our life experiences, relationships (especially as children), and emotions.

We can do a lot to grow our head knowledge of God, our God concept – sermons, Bible studies, etc. But if we don’t map this knowledge onto our God image – if our experiences and emotions aren’t somewhat in sync with our head knowledge – then we begin to create a larger gap between our head and heart knowledge of God. And the larger this gap becomes, the more we may struggle to feel God is real or relevant. If our head is full of knowledge, but we never feel or experience what we believe to be true in our mind, God becomes little more than an academic concept.

I found this a really helpful distinction to make. Cha explains how our God image – our heart knowledge – is significantly shaped by our relationships with others. How you experience family and friendship from your earliest years goes a long way to shaping your sense of God image. In our (Western) world, where relationships seem to be increasingly fragile and damaged, this makes much sense of the growing gap between head and heart knowledge. In my own theological tradition, which holds a stereotype of focussing on head knowledge at the expense of the heart knowledge (not wholly unfairly, mind you), this was a helpful insight to understanding why this may be the case. And it certainly highlights a potential danger if we head along that trajectory.

As we make sense of ourselves and our shame, we implicitly attribute our relationship to others onto our perception of our relationship to God. If we understand God to be relational, it only makes sense that we would look to other more tangible relationships to understand what that relationship with God might be like. And, of course, as those more tangible relationships are deeply flawed and impacted by sin, it inevitably distorts our perception of God and his relationship with us.

Who wrote it

Judy Cha is the director of Redeemer Counseling Services, a ministry of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.

Why I read it

There are not a lot of theological books on identity that I have felt really hit the mark, so I’m always keen to find one.

What I liked

This was perhaps the best book I’ve read in connecting theological reflection with psychological and therapeutic insight. Judy Cha grounds everything very clearly in theology, whilst bringing her professional expertise to bear. Typically, books of this nature lean heavily one way or the other. This does an excellent job at holding both together in tension.

There were some very insightful moments throughout the book, especially on unpacking how we perceive God (drawing upon some helpful psychology insights) and how our most significant idols impact both our sense of self and of God. Here, it is clear that Cha is drawing significantly upon what she has learned sitting under the ministry of Tim Keller. And she benefits greatly from it.

What I didn’t

Whilst being the best book I’ve read in this area, There were a few times I wished it had gone a little more practical. When it walks the tension between theology and psychology, it errs on the side of theology. That’s certainly not a bad side to err on.

What it means, though, is that sometimes the book stays a little too in the abstract. I understand that ‘identity’ is an abstract concept, but the book wasn’t quite the knockout that I hoped it would be. Still a great and worthwhile read. But it does leave me continuing to search for a book that may not yet exist.

Major Takeaway

“Our God image is influenced by our experience of pain because it is correlated to how we view other people”

Who should read it

A worthwhile read for anyone looking to understand themselves better. It’s not too long, and, I would think, has plenty of food for thought also for someone who wouldn’t call themselves a Christian.